The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Monday nabbed a number of Palestinian civilians in Occupied Jerusalem and heavily assaulted others. A PIC correspondent quoted by-standers at the scene as reporting that the IOF nabbed four Palestinian young men after having stormed their family homes in Isawiya and Jabal al-Mukabir in Occupied Jerusalem.

Two more youths were abducted by the IOF from Jerusalem’s town of Silwan, south of holy al-Aqsa Mosque.

In a related development, the IOF rounded up 21-year-old Palestinian young lady Shourouk Ayman Abu Rateb, a resident of Um Tuba village and a mother of a two-year-old kid, and kept interrogating her for long hours allegedly for attempting to stab an Israeli occupation soldier at a military checkpoint pitched near the main entrance to the Shuaf’at refugee camp.

Sources based at the camp further reported the subjection of the Palestinian teenager Omar Fahmi al-Zughir, 18, to heavy beating at the hands of the Israeli light rail guards.

Omar’s father said the bunch of Israeli vandals dragged his son to a nearby bush before they stripped him of his clothes, and searched him in such a remarkably offending manner in the presence of a squad of the Israeli occupation police and border cops.

Earlier, overnight on Saturday, a gang of fanatic Israeli settlers heavily assaulted a Palestinian civilian from Beit Hanina, north of Occupied Jerusalem, before they hurriedly walked out of the area.

The Jerusalemite civilian was rushed to a hospital to receive urgent treatment for the wounds he sustained in the assault.

Meanwhile, Raed Abu Bashir, lawyer of the family of Palestinian martyrs Udai and Ghassan Abu Jamal, spoke out against the mounting house demolitions launched by the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) in Jerusalem’s Jabal al-Makbar.

“Such arbitrary demolitions make part of pre-planned policy of collective punishment pursued by the IOA against Jerusalemites,” he charged.

“Over 760 families in Jabal al-Mukabir are subjected to heavy fines; 280 homes are threatened with demolition and 28% of land tracts are only licensed for construction,” he further charged.

He warned of Israel’s attempts to isolate Occupied Jerusalem from its geo-political milieu and crack down on Palestinian civilians via abduction campaigns and random shooting.

He held Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the IOF responsible for the death of Udai and Ghassan Abu Jamal, calling for legal action against such Israeli crimes and returning the bodies of the two Palestinian men.

Earlier, on Wednesday, the Magistrate’s Court turned down the appeals of lawyer Mohammad Mahmoud to return the bodies under the pretext of underway investigation procedures.

For his part, Jerusalem’s Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Hussein urged the IOA to immediately release the youths’ bodies so as to enable the family to carry out the burial rituals as stipulated by the Islamic faith.

“No human being should ever be punished for crimes committed by another person. These families have the right to live in dignity,” he said. “Such Israeli procedures are just intolerable and will only simmer even further the tension rocking Occupied Jerusalem.”

“We are facing a real war waged by the racist Israeli occupation government to grab hold over Jerusalem and enforce a spatio-temporal division on Muslims’ holy al-Aqsa Mosque,” journalist and political analyst Rasem Ubeidat said.

“Such felonies amount to war crimes. House demolitions are war crimes that do stand in sharp contrast with the Fourth Geneva Convention,” he added.

He further spoke out against Israel’s violation of Muslims’ religious freedom via its frequent sacrilegious assaults and state vandalism on Islamic holy sites and the peaceful Muslim congregation across the Occupied Palestinian territories.

Udai and Ghassan passed away following a retaliation-attack on a Jewish synagogue in Occupied Jerusalem, an attack dubbed by historiographers as a natural retort and expected scenario to Israel’s terrorism on Palestinian civilians and Muslims’ sanctuaries.

Senior Hamas leader, Dr. Ahmed Yousef, said in an exclusive interview with the PIC that a projected “third intifada” (uprising), religious at heart, is expected to burst out in the face of the Israeli occupation.“There is no doubt that such an unprecedented upsurge in the rate of anti-Israeli occupation demos and protests against settler vandalism are all forerunners of a coming third intifada,” he said.

“Had not the demos that swept all cities of the West Bank been disbanded by the Palestinian government, a third intifada would have perhaps seen the day,” he confirmed.

He attributed the projected uprising to Israel’s mounting sacrilegious assaults on Muslims’ holy al-Aqsa Mosque and intimidation of the peaceful Muslim congregation in an attempt to perpetrate its Judaization plots and enforce a spatio-temporal division on the Mosque as it had already done at al-Khalil’s Ibrahimi Mosque.

According to Yousef, a religious intifada is inescapably coming out soon due to the striking outburst of Israeli terrorism.

The Hamas leader raised alarm bells over Israel’s exploitation of the “Islamophobia scarecrow” sounded across the U.S. and a few countries of the West to sharpen the world’s abhorrence of adherents of the Islamic faith, thus leaving larger room for the perpetration of its Judaization conspiracies and the misappropriation of holy al-Aqsa Mosque.

Yousef dubbed current regional and international moves to soothe tension across Occupied Jerusalem unproductive initiatives that exacerbate even further Israel’s despotism and tyranny against the Palestinian and Muslim masses.

He hailed the recent attacks carried out by Palestinian resistance fighters and civilians in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem, describing them as “natural retorts” to Israel’s terrorism.

“Such spur-of-the-moment retaliation-attacks reflected the will of Palestinians and Muslims in the West Bank,” he said. “The responses came as notices to the Israeli occupation. Each and every Palestinian can turn into a ‘ticking time bomb’ whenever his/her sanctuaries are at stake.”

He acclaimed Iran’s pro-Hamas positions, saying: “Iran has played a decisive role in mobilizing the masses in favor of the Palestinian cause and resistance.”

Head of the Israeli municipal council in occupied Jerusalem Nir Barkat intends to execute a new security plan to provide security and protection for Jewish individuals, Israel's channel 2 revealed.The PIC reporter in Jerusalem described the plan as racist, affirming that it ignores the safety of Jerusalemite natives who are exposed to systematic daily attacks by Israeli settlers and policemen.

The plan, which will be launched as of Sunday, includes the deployment of dozens of police patrol cars across the holy city and armed security guards near Jewish institutions as well as some surveillance balloons around the city.

The Israeli military and security measures in and around villages and cities in the West Bank and in occupied Jerusalem using concrete cubes turned them into isolated cantons, according to Palestinian citizens and officials.Eyewitnesses said the Israeli army closed the entrances of al-Ram, Northern Jerusalem, Sinjil, Aboud, Deir Abu Mishaal and a number of Jerusalem towns using concrete cubes during this week, in addition; it has set up military checkpoints in different locations.

Palestinian districts in eastern Jerusalem and in the West Bank have been witnessing clashes with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for several months; in protest at the occupation policies, the daily arrests and the repeated storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by settlers.

And as a result of the escalated storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestinians have recently carried out attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank that resulted in the death and injury of a number of Israelis, the last one was on Tuesday (18/11), when two Palestinians, who were killed on the spot by the Israeli police, attacked a synagogue in West Jerusalem, killing 5 Israelis and injuring others.

Occupation racism

For his part, Ziad Abu Ein, the man in charge with the settlements and the Wall file in the Palestine liberation organization (PLO), said that Israel is creating new ghettos by closing the main entrances to cities and villages in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, similar to the apartheid cantons in South Africa, according to Anadolu News Agency.

He added that Israel started to use this method as a mass punishment each time the Palestinians carried out attacks against Israeli targets. He pointed out that Israel used this method in the first intifada (uprising) in 1987 and in al-Aqsa intifada in 2000. He went on:" Since 2002, Israel has isolated 11 Palestinian towns with the Separation Wall and electronic gates, and has set up 63 checkpoints in the West Bank."

At the entrance of al-Ram town, scores of Palestinian vehicles are stranded after closing its entrances, and citizens are moving on foot. The entrance to the town usually witnesses violent confrontations with the Israeli occupation troops.

According to citizens, closing the gates has stopped normal life in the town, traders and employees have to reach their work places on foot, which takes a lot of time. Furthermore, merchants said they cannot enter goods or foodstuffs into the town.

Israel intensified its security measures at the military checkpoints in the West Bank and set up flying roadblocks between the Palestinian villages and towns under the pretext of maintaining security.

Israeli public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, has approved to ease the rules for private bearing of arms for Israeli citizens, under a pretext of defense against 'terror attacks', according to Haaretz. Meanwhile, curfews and blockades have been imposed in a number of Arab neighborhoods in the Jerusalem area. PNN reports that Aharonovich promised Israelis that he would prepare the official documents which would ease their permits to bear arms "in the wake of terror attacks".

The licensing will also let security guards in Israeli-occupied lands keep their arms with them past work hours.

The official also promised an extension for Israeli agricultural communites, and Israeli citizens licensed to carry a firearm. In addition, all military officers will be allowed to posses arms, under the approval of their leaders.

Israeli occupation forces, early Thursday morning, also placed concrete blocks at the entrances and exists of the villages of Sur Baher, Ras Al-Amud, Jabal Al-Mukabber, Um Tur, and East Jerusalem, leaving out one exit that leads to the road near Jabal Abu Ghneim, near Bethlehem.

Palestinians of Jerusalem told the PNN that Israeli forces blocked all the entrances and exists with concrete blocks, imposing curfew on Arab citizens, breaking all international and humanitarian laws.

The main roads to the Palestinian neighborhoods in the Jerusalem district were reported to have been completely blockaded, except for one on which Palestinians are closely searched, cars stopped, ID's inspected and security tightened.

The actions in Jerusalem caused traffic jams for hundreds of Palestinians who had only one road to travel to their jobs and schools.

Witnesses assure that these actions are consisten with Israeli apartheid policies and collective punishments against Palestinians in the city, in addition to the escalating tension over the past months.

Citizens have demanded human rights organizations and international associations to intervene in exposing Israel's racist crimes against Palestinians in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs held the Israeli government and the extreme right in the Knesset fully responsible for what it said "the very grave escalation of the situation in occupied Jerusalem".

"The occupation government is waging a war against Jerusalem and the [Islamic] holy sites in order to Judaize them and separate them from their Palestinian surrounding," the ministry stated in a press release on Wednesday.

The ministry highlighted that the ugly killing of 16-year-old Mohamed Abu Khudair by burning him alive at the hands of Jewish settlers was a serious turning point in this escalation.

"What has strongly contributed to inflaming the situation is also the racist bills that have been adopted and proposed by leaders of the extreme right wing in Israel in order to perpetuate the occupation and change the nature of the conflict," the ministry added.

"The Israeli government's denial of the Palestinian people's rights and its intentional frustration of every chance to engage in serious talks as well as the official incitement, which is led by Netanyahu, would lead to the weakening of the trend of peace and negotiation in the whole region," the ministry warned.

The ministry also accused the Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu of persistently backing the options of escalation, suppression and mass punishment against the Palestinians, and using a violent strategy to deal with the serious deterioration in the situation.

The ministry demanded the Israeli government to stop its escalation of aggressive practices against Jerusalem, its Palestinian natives and the Aqsa Mosque and align itself with political solutions ending the current tension through recognizing the Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and its people's right to self-determination.

The Israeli economy minister on Wednesday launched calls to embark on a military offensive in Eastern Jerusalem in face of what he called “terror infrastructure.” “Israel should move from defense to attack, like we did in 2002’s Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank,” Bennett told the Israeli army radio.

He called for the need to bring in Border Patrol forces, launch abduction campaigns, gather intelligence and maintain permanent military presence in East Jerusalem.

“Rather than put security guards in restaurants, synagogues and preschools, forces must go to the source of the attacks,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli public security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said Israeli is going through a long-winded “state of war,” slamming PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas for incitement against the Israeli occupation.

In another development, Israeli media sources said serious Knesset moves have been underway to pass a law stripping every Jerusalemite convicted of terrorism of his/her citizenship.

Yelet Shaked, of the extremist settler Jewish Home party, outlined the draft law following rising tension in Occupied Jerusalem, in a move that risks stoking even further the already scorching tensions.

The draft proposal is aimed at rescinding citizenship, along with the ensuing social rights and national assurances, of Palestinians suspected of potential involvement in attacks against the Israeli occupation.

Dr. Hasan Ali Khater Dr. Hasan Ali Khater, head of the International Jerusalem Center, stated that the recent Israeli cabinet decisions regarding occupied Jerusalem are a declaring war on the Palestinians, and a green light to Israeli extremists to continue their assaults and violations.

He said the decisions made by the cabinet would also lead to further escalation in Jerusalem and the West Bank, adding that he believes more clashes likely to take place on a larger scale.

Khater told Palestine Today online daily that the Israeli measures and violations, its reactions and collective punishment, including against the families of Ghassan Abu Jamal and Odai Abu Jamal, who carried out the Tuesday Yeshiva attack in Jerusalem, would just lead to escalating violence in every part of the country.

He added that deciding to provide more arms to the settlers is yet another green light encouraging them to conduct more crimes against the Palestinian people.

Following the death of five Israelis in Jerusalem, the Israeli cabinet decided to install various roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem, to increase security measures, escalate the military searches of homes and communities, and to demolish the homes of the two Palestinians who carried out the attack.

Khater stated that the decisions are a continuation of Israel’s violations against the Palestinians, and the holy sites, in occupied Jerusalem, and the destruction of homes and property, in addition to imposing high taxes and fines on the Palestinians.

“The ongoing violations against Jerusalem, its people and its holy sites, the escalating arrests, the digging under the Al-Aqsa mosque and various other areas, and all racist policies pushed the Palestinian to resort to whatever available means to defend themselves,” he added, “This is all happening while Arab and Islamic countries, and the International community, remain silent.”

“The Palestinians are retaliating to the murder of their children on the hands of extremist Israeli settlers, and soldiers,” Khater said, “The world needs to understand injustice and tyranny must be countered by all available means.”

He also said that fanatic Israeli settlers are responsible for so many crimes; including the abduction and brutal murder to Mohammad Abu Khdeir, and the murder of Yousef Rammouni, the burning and defacing of holy sites, and that the Palestinian attacks are acts of retaliation to ongoing crimes.

Khater demanded all Palestinian factions to unite, protect Jerusalem, and its holy sites.

“Jerusalem must unite us, must push us for full national unity,” he said, “Jerusalem is the core of our struggle against the Zionist army.”

Israeli Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich issued orders for more severe measures isolating entire Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem, including the constant search of Palestinians entering or leaving them. Aharonovich made his decision following the Tuesday attack by two Palestinians who stabbed Yeshiva students in occupied Jerusalem, killing five and wounding several others, before being shot dead.

The Israeli Radio said Aharonovich has instructed the army and the security devices to conduct a series of measures against the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem, including preventing the families of the two Palestinians from burying them in the city.

The Israeli official held a meeting with army and police commanders, in addition to senior Internal Security officials, instructed them to install more roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods, villages and towns in and around Jerusalem, and instructed the army to conduct detailed searches of every Palestinian who crosses those roadblocks.

He also ordered the deployment of four more brigades of Border Guard Units in various neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

In addition, Aharonovich instructed the deployment of police and army units in various areas in the country, and is weighing the possibility of resuming Administrative Detention policies against Jerusalemite Palestinians, to enable holding them indefinitely without charges or trial.

He also instructed easing the restrictions on weapons permits to allow more Jewish settlers to carry arms.

In related news, the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (ad-Dameer) has reported that the soldiers kidnapped, Tuesday, ten members of the families of Odai and Ghassan Abu Jamal, who carried out the attack against the Yeshiva earlier in the day.

The two are from Jabal al-Mokabber, southeast of Jerusalem.

The lawyer, Mohammad Mahmoud, said the soldiers kidnapped the father, mother and wife of Ghassan, the mother, uncle and brother of Odai. In addition to Forat, Monther, Jamal and Mo’awiya Abu Jamal.

He stated ad-Dameer would be following the cases of the kidnapped Palestinians, currently held at the al-Maskobiyya interrogation center, and added that the family refuses the autopsy the Israeli authorities intend to conduct, and are demanding the release of the bodies of the two Palestinians for burial ceremonies.

Also on Tuesday, a group of Israelis stabbed a Palestinian man in northern Jerusalem; the man Fadi Jalal Radwan, 22, was stabbed three times in the legs, and once in the back, before the assailants fled the scene, leaving him bleeding in the street.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the media that his military forces would respond 'with a firm hand' to an attack by two Palestinians on a yeshiva (Jewish religious institution for study) in Jerusalem in which four religious Jews were killed. Another Israeli government official compared the attack to the Holocaust. The two men allegedly entered the while prayers were in service with knives, axes and guns, and began attacking worshipers. Israeli police soon arrived on the scene and, after a brief shootout, killed the two men.

Six people were wounded in the attack, including two police officers, according to police spokesperson Luba Samri.

The two men who carried out the attack were identified as Ghassan Abu Jamal and his cousin Udayy from Jabal al-Mukabbir neighborhood of Jerusalem.

The institution that was attacked, Kehillet Bnei Torah, is known as a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) institute whose participants are followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach. Auerbach gained infamy in early 2014 throughout Israel when he declared that his followers would “fight to the death” against the Israeli government if the government attempted to enforce the military draft on yeshiva students.

The attack on the religious institution follows months of attacks by right-wing Israeli Jews against Palestinians which went largely uninvestigated by the Israeli police. These include the brutal murder of 16-year old Mohammad Abu Khdeir in June, who was forced to swallow kerosene and then burned alive, according to autopsy reports. The killers were identified and charged, but were released from jail within two weeks of their arrest.

That incident was followed by dozens of others, carried out by Israeli civilians and soldiers throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem, reaching a peak during the brutal Israeli military assault in July and August in which over 2100 Palestinians were killed, including over 400 children.

Most recently, on Sunday a Palestinian bus driver was hanged to death inside his bus – despite his body being covered with bruises, the Israeli police immediately ruled the death a suicide. Their ruling led to protests by Palestinians, who have no legal recourse in Israeli courts.

After Tuesday's shooting attack, Israeli Prime Minister blamed both Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President – whose Fateh party recently reached a unity agreement with Hamas. The two men involved in the attack did not claim affiliation with any Palestinian faction, but an alleged representative of Hamas praised the attack in Israeli media.

Large numbers of Israeli police were deployed into Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem following the attack. The police had already been deployed in many of these neighborhoods, where they have had an increased presence over the last several months.

Israeli official Yehuda Meshi Zahav told the Israeli paper Ha'aretz that, “...to see Jews with beards and pe’ot (sidelocks) wrapped in teffilin (phylacteries), surrounded by puddles of blood – I do not remember seeing such a sight. This is not a cliché, it’s the reality. We have only seen things like this happen in the Holocaust.”